Stepmom`s Arrest Reopens Family Scar

March 18, 1986|By Andrew Bagnato.

Judy Kadera waved away a thick cloud of her cigarette`s smoke and said she does not feel vindictive toward Catherine Shaw Hozian, the woman who is accused of attempted murder for allegedly choking Kadera`s 7-year-old daughter and leaving her unconscious in a field on March 9.

``I would like more than anything to have five minutes alone with Cathy to talk,`` said Kadera, 28, during an interview Monday.

Kadera is not sure what she would say to Hozian, who is being held in Du Page County Jail unable to post $250,000 bond, but she longs to know what happened Dec. 15, 1982. That was the day Kadera`s 5-year-old son, John Hozian, was found lying unconscious, his head inside a plastic garbage bag, in the basement of the Carpentersville house where he lived with his father and Mrs. Hozian. The boy died the next day in an Elgin hospital.

Mr. and Mrs. Hozian were married in 1984, according to the Du Page County sheriff`s office, six years after Mr. Hozian and Kadera were divorced.

As a result of Mrs. Hozian`s arrest last Monday, Carpentersville Police have reopened the investigation into the boy`s death. Detectives from the northwest suburb have met with representatives of the Kane County State`s Attorney`s office, but no charges have been filed.

As Kadera struggles with the memory of her son`s death, she wants to know why Mrs. Hozian was not called to testify at the Kane County Coroner`s jury that ruled John Hozian`s death an accident. Police and Coroner Mary Lou Kearns have said there was no evidence to indicate foul play was involved in the boy`s death.

``Initially, of course, I`m going to have suspicions, because it`s my child,`` Kadera said, recalling her reaction when she learned her son had died. Kadera said her Christian beliefs taught her that ``everything happens for a reason. I forgave Cathy.``

But the investigators` questions and publicity surrounding the reopened case have stirred the initial emotions Kadera experienced when her son died more than three years ago.

``Dealing with both of these incidents, there are times it makes me feel very sick inside,`` said Kadera, who runs a gas station in Downers Grove. ``A lot of times it`s all I can do to keep myself under control.``

The effects of the events have been no less devastating to her daughter, a cute, lively girl who once won a spelling bee in her class at school.

Kadera told how the child had insisted on visiting her father, and how she had eventually become comfortable being with her stepmother. ``It had gotten to the point in the last few months or so they had gotten along fine,`` Kadera said.

But now the dark-haired girl cries whenever she hears a strange sound, particularly the wind howling outside the house at night. It was windy the night she was attacked in the field.

And the girl also is afraid that police will blame her father for what happened, Kadera said. ``Don`t the police know my daddy`s not going to hurt me?`` Kadera said her daughter asked.

Monday was the girl`s first day back at school. She does not show any physical signs of the attack, but Kadera said she plans to take her daughter to a counselor. ``She`s a very strong little girl,`` Kadera said. ``I think she`ll come out of this all right.``

Mrs. Hozian is scheduled to appear in Du Page County Circuit Court next Tuesday.